A 51-year-old truck driver working for a Pennsylvania company has died in a construction accident on the New Jersey Turnpike near Bordentown.
The incident occurred recently when the driver was preparing to unload a concrete barrier at a site on the turnpike. The concrete barriers are used to guide traffic during construction, and can weigh up to 12 tons. The man, who drove the truck carrying the barriers, was reportedly about to unload the barriers near a crane and had just finished maneuvering the truck into position.
As he was unlatching the straps and binders that secure the barriers, one of them apparently fell off the flatbed truck and onto the man, instantly crushing him. The man was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, according to reports.
Tipton Trucking, the company the man worked for that’s based in Oxford, Pennsylvania, said there were safety officials on the scene, and State Police and other agencies are investigating. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration have been notified of the incident as well.
According to NJ.com, co-workers at the construction site expressed shock after the accident due to the truck driver’s experience and familiarity with hauling the barriers, as he had worked with the company for over a year prior to the accident.
This was the first fatal accident during the four years that Tipton Trucking Company had been working on the project. Tipton Trucking is a subcontractor for South State Inc., which is responsible for the Turnpike widening project.
